together. Finally during the winter, growth of both fish and scale 
practically stops altogether. The edge of the scale during any 
winter is therefore the line where the circuli change from a closely 
crowded condition (autumn growth) to a widely separated con- 
dition (spring growth), and we can thus see on the scale more or 
less clearly the succession of spring, summer, autumn, and winter 
for each year of its growth. . 
The scale on the left of figure 11 is from a plaice seven and a half 
inches long, which was caught in Passamaquoddy bay, N.B., in 
October, 1917. It has two bands where the lines are close together, 
one near the centre of growth, and the other along the edge of the 
scale, and it has therefore lived through two autumns, the second 
of which is not yet over. Between these two bands is a broad area 
with the lines far apart. This is the growth of the second spring 
and summer. Where is the growth of the first spring and summer, 
for there must have been such, seeing that the eggs are spawned 
and hatched in the spring? It should be between the centre of 
growth and the band of the first autumn. The reason it is not there 
is because during the first spring and summer the fish was at first 
an embryo in the egg and afterwards a larva or fry. In both of 
these stages it is quite without scales, which begin to grow only 
when the left eye moves over to the right side of the head and the 
young fish goes to the bottom to live. This does not happen until 
the slow autumn growth has begun, at which time the fish is already 
one and a half inches long. The scales therefore show no trace of 
the first summer’s growth and indeed some scales may not begin to 
grow until after the first winter. 
The fish to which this left scale belongs must have been nearly 
two years old in the fall of 1917, which means that it was spawned 
in the spring of 1916. The scale on the right in figure 11 is from a 
fish a little under seven and one-half inches in length, which was 
caught in the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland in August, 1915. 
Although smaller than the other fish, its scale shows six bands 
where the lines are close together, which means that it had lived 
through six autumns. At the edge of the scale the lines are far 
apart, showing that in August, 1915, it was having its seventh 
spring or early summer growth, for at that latitude the summer 
in the deep water is very late. Although smaller than the specimen 
from Passamaquoddy bay, it was more than three times as old as 
22 
